


Coping

by CaptainJZH



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, lion is an emotional support animal, vent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27726119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainJZH/pseuds/CaptainJZH
Summary: Connie's anxious, and Patricia's there to listen.
Relationships: Daniel & Connie Maheswaran & Patricia
Comments: 1
Kudos: 16





	Coping

Connie felt like shit.

She felt like shit when she went to bed that night, she felt like shit when she woke up.

Lion came to the side of her bed, nuzzling his face against hers. She sighed, giving the large feline a faint smile.

“Why can’t I just feel good like a normal person?” Connie asked herself. 

She didn’t want to get out of bed. Why get out of bed if the world was so dark and horrible? It was weird, some days she was Connie Maheswaran: Fighter Against Injustice. Other days, she was Connie Maheswaran: Anxiety-Riddled, Depressed Loser Who Can’t Be Bothered To Get Up.

She always felt like she was being a nuisance to others, like nothing she did would ever matter and she should just keep to herself. Her friends sometimes joked that life sucked. Well, if everyone agreed that life sucks, then what was the point?

Connie wished she could stop her spiraling mind. One little controversy and suddenly she was mentally preparing for arguments she would probably be too anxious to participate in. It got  _ exhausting. _

Suddenly, her phone rang.

“Hey Connie,” Patricia said, “you know how Danny kept telling Jeff to ask that Fryman kid out? Well, he finally did it!”

“That’s...great…” Connie said, trying to sound like she had an ounce of enthusiasm in her. 

“Connie?” Patricia asked. “Are you okay?”

Connie sighed. Her friends knew about her problems. There was no point in lying. “Anxiety’s pretty bad today. And yesterday. And the day before.”

“Any particular reason?”

“...it’s stupid,” Connie said.

“Connie, I’m  _ certain  _ that it’s not,” Patricia assured her.

“...Okay, so you know that  _ Under the Knife  _ meme group I’m in on FaceBox?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, they posted some memes about politics, and I guess it got overwhelming for me?”

“But I thought you loved politics?”

“I dunno, I guess I like structured, scheduled debate and analysis of government systems...but that’s because there I  _ expect  _ it? Like, I’m prepared for that stuff, here...”

“...here you got caught off guard?”

“Exactly! Usually the memes are like ‘what if Doctor Strongnoff was named Doctor Stroganoff and was covered in pasta?’” She could hear Patricia laugh at that. It made Connie smile a little more. “But then people are suddenly posting memes about crisis after crisis, and my anxiety got going... And I guess it’s frustrating because I shouldn’t get so anxious over some dumb jokes, y'know?”

“That’s valid though,” Patricia said. “Like, can I be honest?”

“Sure.”

“I sometimes get that way when  _ you  _ go on your rants about stuff.”

“...you do?”

“Nothing against you! Keeping up the good fight and all that,” Patricia said with a chuckle. “But the subjects make me anxious sometimes, so I gotta collect myself a little.”

“Collect yourself?”

“You know, breathe easy. Tell yourself that you have nothing to fear.”

The lyrics  _ “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here…”  _ echoed through Connie’s head. She sighed a big, long sigh.

“Thanks, Pat,” Connie said. “I feel a little better now.”

“Chin up, ‘Ni!” Patricia said in her trademark bubbly voice. “You’ll get through this funk.”

Connie smiled a bit more. “Yeah, I will,” she said before hanging up.

Lion hopped up onto the bed, nearly pushing Connie off as he tried to snuggle with her. “No, wait, Lion—!” Connie said before being pulled into a hug.

She had to get up. She had to do  _ something _ and force herself out of the sadness, however briefly. Maybe she'd write some more Spirit Morph fanfic. Ooh, or work on that drawing of Steven's _Crying Breakfast Friends_ OCs she was doing for his birthday.

But for now? Snuggling with Lion made her feel pretty good.


End file.
